Of course I'm approaching the matter in the most general fashion below and specific cases might warrant a different response. What ability(ies) prompted your question in the first place? Are you wondering how to adjudicate them (as GM) or play them, or just trying to get a handle on how GURPS works with an eye toward doing either or both in the future?
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Originally Posted by JCurwen3
Thanks. That makes sense. Obviously that makes Preparation Required a more brutal limitation for abilities that require an activation roll vs those that don't.
I wonder, how would you price it if you rolled before the prep time (thus only having to spend the prep time when you know for sure you'll be successful if only your prep isn't disturbed)?
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I probably wouldn't - the basic truism "You never know until you try," applies. Being certain of success in advance mechanically eliminates the possibility of the sheer bad-luck of automatic failure - I would push that into play (rather than character gen/advancement mechanics) as a matter of "How does the character make this fool-proof?" For play purposes there may be times in which a GM permits an out-of-sequence roll in order to smooth game-flow, but that still implies the possible necessity of having to ret-con the result description if it is in significant conflict with subsequent developments which precede the result in-sequence. Rolling before the prep time essentially results in the character knowing the future, begging the question of how s/he manages to do so.